Dewhurst’s wife couldn’t take the screaming as he watched the nasty gridlock in the nation’s capital, he said. She insisted that he run for the Senate seat (instead of governor in two years as he had planned) or turn off the TV.

“We’re going into the proverbial toilet if we don’t change Washington,” Dewhurst said. “We will bankrupt the future of our children and grandchildren.”

Widely perceived as the one to beat in the May 29 GOP primary race for U.S. Senate, Dewhurst says he’s tackling this challenge just as he has done in a life that took him from from a young child who lost his father to family man and multimillionaire to public servant.

He casts himself as a conservative Republican, emphasizes that he embraced the core principles of the Tea Party, before that movement gained momentum, and bristles at suggestions that he’s overly moderate.

“In politics I can understand people trying to spin, but when someone flat out lies and knows that it’s a lie — as in one of the people in this race — then that speaks to their character and to their integrity,” Dewhurst said, not naming which of the rival candidates he means.

He is focused instead on running to win the primary fight without a runoff. With 10 candidates on the ballot, it’s a steep hill to climb. “I have climbed steep hills before,” he said.

The loss of his father seems to have shaped his determination, as it did his struggles as a child.

Dewhurst was 3 when his father was killed in a car accident involving a drunken driver.

He believes the trauma from the loss caused him to develop a serious stutter, which he worked to overcome by joining the high school debate team. “I figured I was either going to die of humiliation or get better, and I got better,” he said.

He played basketball at Houston ‘s Lamar High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in English and history from the University of Arizona, where he also played basketball for two years before he was cut.

Later, he learned to speak Spanish while in Bolivia as a CIA agent in the early 1970s — a time in between his days as an Air Force officer and his business career.

He was elected land commissioner in 1998 and first won the lieutenant governor’s seat in 2002. He’s been re-elected twice to the post.

Dewhurst made his fortune in the energy business. He is the founder of Falcon Seaboard, a Houston-based energy and investments company, which flourished with more than 100 employees until the 1980s oil bust reduced it to just him and a part-time secretary, Ann Melamed.

It’s Melamed whom he credits with the seed for a multimillion-dollar idea to “co-generate” two energy forms from natural gas turbines and sell the electricity and steam that’s produced.

If elected, Dewhurst could become the wealthiest of the 100 U.S. senators. Financial disclosures indicate he is worth at least $200 million.

“I don’t think of myself as wealthy,” he said. “I’m still the same David Dewhurst that grew up and didn’t have two nickels to rub together, when I started my business.”

Criticism of his nine years as lieutenant governor comes easily from Democratic leadership who see Dewhurst as soft on his own issues.

Dewhurst displayed compassion, Shapleigh said, but too often “caved to extremists” like then-House Speaker Tom Craddick, when Craddick pushed to cut health insurance to more than 200,000 children of working and low-income families, or like Perry, who oversaw sweeping cuts for public education.

Dewhurst’s own priorities were side issues, such as insisting on steroid testing for high school student athletes or pushing the death sentence for mentally retarded Texans who committed capital murders, Shapleigh said, noting that both issues have since been dropped or overturned.

He faults Dewhurst for showing insufficient leadership in addressing the big issues facing Texas as it transitions to a majority Hispanic state, where Hispanics are expected to become the state’s largest population group as soon as 2015.

“Dewhurst is what the Republican Party of today is, ever more extreme without real solutions to what faces real Texans” Shapleigh said.

By contrast, Bullock focused on the state’s future, and senators who wanted his help in moving legislation had to pledge their support for critical statewide issues, he said. With Bullock, it was “get us to yes or get out of the way.”

Dewhurst often resists draconian measures, which Shapleigh said is “worth something” but contends he did not take on the real challenges that will make or break Texas in the future.

Bruce Gibson, a former legislator and chief of staff for Dewhurst and Bullock, said Dewhurst strives for balance.

“The right gets very frustrated with David,” Gibson said, “because they think he does too much.”

Dewhurst’s personality quirks — his knack for figures, chronic tardiness and what some describe as social awkwardness — have also become part of his profile at the Capitol.

He’s known to bring a calculator to meetings, where he crunches big numbers.

“He thrives on numbers,” Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, said. “If he gives you facts and figures, you can go to the bank with them.”

“He’s worked really hard to loosen up, and he has loosened up a lot,” Gibson promises. “He has a really big, kind heart, and you won’t find anyone who knows him well who won’t tell you that. He hears a sad story and he just starts writing checks.”

Dewhurst’s 2009-11 tax records show that he gave $4 million to charity for those three years.

He’s also easily sidetracked, according to friends and colleagues, who blame this for making him late.

Dewhurst insists he’s trying to improve.

“I try to crowd too much into a time slot. I have gotten a lot more realistic about what I can get accomplished time-wise. For anyone who I ever showed up late, I apologize,” he said, “and I owe you a cup of coffee.”